Lenore stood calmly, then leapt into the air hovering. She took out the bell she had previously been thinking about, Kibeth, the Walker. There was no way she could extend her will over so many people, so she'd have to choose a few. The Necromancer closed her eyes and concentrated, finding the conciousness of those who manned the cannons. She took a breath and rang the bell, starting out as a pure note laden with power. But it soon became a merry jig that compelled those she cose to walk, either off the ship or directly into Death. They would have to have an iron will to resist.

At the first sight of the ship, Teirra was a little worried. She wasn't worried about the danger the enemy ships posed, though, but just about the fact that she probably wouldn't be get a chance to collect any bolts she might fire from her crossbow during the battle. However, this worry disappeared as soon as she opened a weapon locker on the deck and found herself a large cache of extra ammunition.

Teirra spent the rest of the battle dancing merrily back and forth across the deck, skirting cannonballs, rolling under the chainshot, and firing shots at the cannon ports without once breaking her rythm. As the ship was rocked by the shot that tore open its hull, Teirra somersaulted forward, then came back up and sent a bolt into the throat of a sailor behind one of the cannons that was responsible. Then she heard Cadeyrn call for the abandoning of the ship.

"Already?" Teirra whined.

She pouted for a second, but then her face lightened up.

"Yeah, good idea," she said, mostly to herself. "We're outgunned and probably outmanned. Better board 'em while the situation's still good."

Reid ran to the side of the ship and looked over the edge to see the damage. She slammed a fist on the wooden railing and shouted a long string of obscenities.

She went below deck as quick as she could, but found Moon lying motionless in his stall. A pepper shot struck him on the head; he was dead. Tears poured from her eyes and she bit her lip in an attempt to make her quivering chin be still. She could hear panicked shouting on deck and had no choice but to take her belongings and flee.

She retrieved her pack, bow, and everything else she had stored in the stall and returned to the deck. She looked around at the disarray, searching for a means of safe escape. In the water she saw several barrels floating along and decided that one of those would suffice for a floating support for the time being.

Without hesitation, she jumped into the water and swam over to a barrel, watching the mayhem on the sinking ship she just escaped.

Hey, Farva! What's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?

Reid forced a smile and then looked back at the sinking ship. Her heart broke all over again with the reminder that Moon would spend the rest of eternity in a watery grave. She sighed and then looked at Cadeyrn.

"What's the plan now? Do we swim to Yangura?" A sarcastic smile formed on her lips as she awaited Cadeyrn's response.

Hey, Farva! What's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?

Lenore watched as the men dropped dead where they stood. She replaced the bell in the bandolier and flew down to hover near the others in the water, her wing beats making ripples on the dark water. "If you want, I can take more of them out, and we can steal one of the ships. All I'd have to do is bind some of them to my will and make them kill each other. Then the ones who survive I will simply walk into Death. Simple, really."

Teirra scowled for a moment at the rejection of her proposal. She had really been looking forward to smashing some heads with her axe. However, a few moments after Cadeyrn was in the water, Teirra dropped in nearby, holding another barrel.

"Now we get to be picked off like sitting ducks," she commented snidely and disconsolately. "If you can't escape and you can't surrender, you always attack."

"Even if we do, do any of you know how hard it is to sail a ship that size? We would need twenty men...at the least. Many more if you wanted to fend off an attack. On the other hand, we do need transportation. It looks as if we're going to be swimming back. Once at the docks, we're going to have words with the commander of one of the Anglic Empire's latest inventions. Now, if you want to live, I suggest that you do as I do."

Cadeyrn smashed one end of his barrel in, lifted it clear of the water, placed it over his head and sank beneath the waves. Now all they had to do was to wait until the longboats, which were launching, left.

Teirra sighed, but finally let go of her hopes of causing carnage for the moment. As directed, she smashed the end of her barrel and hid beneath the water as Cadeyrn had done.

Now that all she could do was wait and hope for the best, she was starting to feel afraid. Terrified, in fact. She was enough of a lunatic that she wouldn't have been afraid to die fighting in a hopeless battle, as her fate would in that case be decided by her own skills. Hiding, however, with her life completely dependent on her being lucky enough to not accidentally turn over her barrel in the rough current and to not be noticed by a particularly observant searcher left her so frightened that she had to make a concerted effort not to panic.

She was tempted to take her barrel up to one of the longboats, then hop aboard and knock off a few heads before gaining her death in battle. However, she had told Cadeyrn that she would get him to Yangurra, and she wasn't going to make a liar of herself. So, putting up with her fear as much as she could, she stayed hidden.

Lenore sighed. "As you wish. You are the leader of this exploration. But instead of down, I'm going up," she said. "If something really bad seems about to happen, I'll let you know." And with that, she was off with a pump of her mightly wings. Her dark scales made for good camoflauge against the night sky.

The soldiers in the longboat really didn't want to be there. After all, any number of enemy soldiers could be pretending to be dead and could attack at any moment. After half an hour of rowing, they were getting very tired of the whole business and so ignored the three barrels that were floating upright. Nor did they look up into the sky. Even if they had, they wouldn't have seen anything, for Lenore was to camoflaged for them to see her.

Ten minutes after the boat had left, Cadeyrn removed his barrel and tapped Ried and Terria's barrels.

"They gone now. If we swim for a couple of hours we'll reach the docks."

Teirra was still a mess when she heard the tap. Not wanting anyone to see the state she was in, though, she collected herself and forced a grin before coming out of the barrel.

"Did they finally turn tail?" she asked in a falsely amused voice.

Looking around, she saw that the boats had left. A sense of relief moved over her at this. She set off swimming behind Cadeyrn, but she kept her barrel so that she wouldn't have to do all the work staying afloat, especially with her mail still on.

Lenore flew down a bit lower, so she could talk if needs be, but also avoid detection by shooting upwards quickly. The only thing to give her away might be a glimmer of Moonlight on her jewel like scales. She sighed. Fortunately she had saved her pack along with her bells. She was glad she wouldn't have to swim with all that stuff.

It was almost dawn when the three tired swommers and one tired flyer arrived back at the docks. Upon reaching dry land, Cadeyrn whispered,

"We''l hole up in an old abandoned warehouse and set out when it gets dark"

Moving off, Cadeyrn led the group through the dingy alleyways and narrow streets until they came to an old warehouse. Pulling out a key, Cadeyrn opened it and led the group inside, heading for a stack of crates. Pulling the front one away, Cadeyrn reveal a plain floor. Using his dirk to prize up the floor boards, he revealed an earth floor. Sticking his hand into the loose dirt, he grabbed a handle and lifted the block out. Ushering the group in, Cadeyrn grinned slightly,

"Smugglers are handy people to know."

Being the last one down, Cadeyrn restored everything the best he could and close the entrance. Hopefully they could get some sleep.

Lenore's hand rested on the pouch that contained the smallest bell: Ranna, the Sleepbringer, And curled up like a dog, wings draped over herself like a blanket. She quickly fell asleep, the tip of her tail twitching every now and then like a cat.

"Like I said before, this is a smuggler's hideout. The people around here clam up really easily. If it wasn't for my sheer size and strength, I wouldn't know about this. There is no chance of the Anglic Empire finding us here."

Cadeyrn smiled briefly, before hanging his bow and cloak up on a peg and curling up.

"You'll need the sleep, but you keep watch if you want. No one saw us arrive, I made sure of that."

Teirra decided to take Cadeyrn's word, as she didn't feel like missing a moment of sleep. She stretched out on the floor and closed her eyes. Unfortunately she was not a very restful person to begin with, and the hard floor for a bed didn't help. As a result, she spent nearly half an hour rolling and tossing around uncomfortably before finally dozing off.

After sleeping soundly for what seemed like several hours, Reid awoke and stared blankly into the dark hide-out.

She opened her pack and felt around until her fingers found a glass bottle. Blindly, she pulled the corked out and took a long drink of the strong liquor. She coughed a bit, but quickly covered her mouth, stifiling the noise in an attempt to not disturb the sleeping members of her party.

Hey, Farva! What's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?

Cadeyrn awoke the second he heard someone coughing, but after he heard Lenore speaking to Reid, he decided that there was no threat. Going back to sleep, Cadeyrn had a nightmare.

He was staggering out of the surf on a stinking hot day. The humidity was so high that it felt like he was drinking the air. As Cadeyrn stood, up he saw one of his mates staggering out of the water. Going as fast as he could, Cadeyrn made his way towards his friend, in order to help him. His friend suddenly collapsed, and Cadeyrn broke out into a run, sprinting the hundred metres or so between him and his mate. The friend was alright, just severly dehydrated and exhausted. Cadeyrn was going to have to find some water and some food. No, wait, shelter was the main thing. Or was it water? Cadeyrn decided to go for the water.

It was three days later when the first rider appeared, just in sight. Cadeyrn and his cobber stood up and hollered for all they were worth, but the rider just rode on. Three days after this incident, the mob arrived. They total forty in all and were a mounted unit, with no slaves as back up. An arrow thudded into the tree beside Cadeyrn and he and his friend were forced to flee. For three days and nights they held out, until lack of sleep, food and their long ordeal at sea caught up with them.

Imagine their surprise to find that their captors were women who had very low opinions of men. Cadeyrn fought when he and his friend were cornered, despite the fact that his opponents were women. On woman was killed, and Cadeyrn was immeadiately subjued. The leader of the group strode forward and raised her sword for the killing blow, but was stopped by on who seemed to be in the lowest esteem. Cadeyrn's saviour walked with a severe limp and was scorned by the others, but yet she saved his life. This was, to Cadeyrn's way of thinking, the true meaning of compassion.

Suddenly the scene changed and Cadeyrn was on a battle field. All around him were corpses, some killed by bolts that had smashed through other men, others killed by musket balls. A man equal in Cadeyrn's height, but much fresher and not even wounded stepped forward to meet Cadeyrn's challange. They fought for so long that Cadeyrn was barely able to stand. The other man raised his sword to kill Cadeyrn.

Cadeyrn awoke full of terror, something that he had felt only once before in his life. Opening the trapdoor a crack, Cadeyrn saw that it was just begining to lighten up. He had overslept.

If Teirra had been awoken by the cough, she hadn't stirred. At the sound of the trapdoor beginning to open, though, she immediately jumped up and grabbed her axe and dagger. However, seeing that it was Cadeyrn who was opening the door, she relaxed and put her weapon onto her belt.